Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey #4) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,64

time, just stayed there.

“What are you doing?” He started to assure the woman he’d done nothing but come to see them, but she cut him off. “I don’t know who you are, big guy, but as of right now, you’re on my shit list. Who said you could come here and make us submit to you? I’m betting you thought this was a good idea all on your own. You mother fucking—”

“Piper, this is the king of the fae, Lord Basil. Your majesty, this is my wife and mate, Piper Coby. She’s a phoenix that the queen of these lands changed many years ago.” Basil put out his hand, and the woman slapped it away. “She’s usually a great deal more friendly.”

“Usually, I just kill sons of bitches that do what you did to me.” Basil watched her face. She wasn’t just angry but worried as well. With good reason, he thought. The king of her mate’s kind hadn’t made an appearance in more years than she’d been born. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Your help? I would ask for a drink too, but I believe you’d spit upon it. You are much more headstrong than I was told. I think I shall love talking with you.” She crossed her arms over her breast and stared at him. “You’ll not believe I heard the ground here had a great warrior. That you were also a woman that could be trusted with all manner of things. That is why I’m here. To ask a favor of you and your mate. You would be good for what I have to ask you.”

“We’re not getting any younger by you talking in riddles. Don’t you guys send out minions when you’re going to visit a place? You know, have the people you’re going to ask something of be ready for you? I’d not think that simply showing up someplace has gotten you too much in the way of good neighbors, has it?” Basil laughed, and that seemed to piss her off more. She was a delight, and he was glad he’d done just what he’d done to see her. “I don’t think you’re the least bit funny. For the last time, what do you want?”

“For you to save my child.” That shut her up. Basil wasn’t sure, however, that it made her any more friendly. “Would you allow me to sit down? Please?”

“Sure.” Before she could put any kind of stipulations on his sitting, he took them both to his own home. Basil made sure he was well away from her before she realized what he’d done. “You mother fucker. You’re just all kinds of stupid today, aren’t you?”

Whatever he expected her to do, it wasn’t for her to shift into a great bird and blow heat over him. It wouldn’t harm him, but he knew that had he not already been prepared for her fire, he would have surely been hurt. Sitting in the chair that had been put there by him, he asked her to have a seat.

“You’re not burning to a crisp.” Basil laughed and told her he’d feel much better if she didn’t seem so thoroughly disappointed. “But I am. You should be dead right now. That is a disappointment to me.”

“I should hope that once you hear what I have to say, you’ll change your mind. Please, my lady, have a seat. I wish to tell you what troubles I have and ask for you to help me with them. I do believe it is only the two of you that can save the faes of your world.” Piper sat down, but she wasn’t happy about it. She also told him she wasn’t fae. “No. You’re not fully a fae, but your mate is. I’ve been keeping an eye on Grant here since he took his first breath. I knew the queen of these lands quite well, too, as a matter of fact.”

“Dante would have told us she was going to just pop in, as you haven’t done.” Basil laughed. He was sure she was upset with him, but he just couldn’t help it. “Tell us what you have in mind. And don’t think we didn’t notice that you’ve taken us off our land. I don’t know where I am, but I’m betting it’ll burn just as quickly as anything on my side of magic.”

“Yes. You’re right. I will get right to the point then. My mate, Lady Rose, passed on. This was a great many years ago, I